12-14-2021, 03:56 PM
If this is the wrong section, feel free to move. 
After posting about it in the December 2021 Finds and Losses section, I did a little more work on this console I ended up with by surprise yesterday. I noticed neither one of the shortwave bands were working, though the lower one would work with wiggling the band switch, so out came the chassis for inspection and cleaning. The contacts in this thing are crappy looking, rather black to be exact and could see an attempt at cleaning had already been made. Sadly, the guy who does this for my buddy is in his mid 70's and is stingy with the contact cleaner... I am not! I gave all the controls a good cleaning and noted two wax capacitors that still need replacing, one on the tone control and one up in the center of the chassis. Actually, that section is much easier to access than the on on my 37-116! So, got the radio back together and we have major improvements. The tone control now works on at least two sections now, better than none, the Magnetic Tuning works just fine and the band switch is better, though still fussy. Actually, it cut out on me earlier on AM, but it was the band switch. I swear, I have had issues with Philco band switches from this era for some reason with only my 37-116 being good.
Still a little work to go though. Those last two wax capacitors will leave the radio after the start of the year and the upper shortwave band is not working. I get some response on the low end of it, but after 8.0 it disappears. Could be something major, could be that band switch. Time to invest in a can of Deoxit! On a plus note, the power transformer on this radio runs the coolest of all my daily driver sets. I always thought Philco used a bit of an over-sized power transformer on the 38-4 and 38-3 sets, which is fine by me. While it doesn't have the fidelity of the 37-116, this radio is a bass thumper.
After posting about it in the December 2021 Finds and Losses section, I did a little more work on this console I ended up with by surprise yesterday. I noticed neither one of the shortwave bands were working, though the lower one would work with wiggling the band switch, so out came the chassis for inspection and cleaning. The contacts in this thing are crappy looking, rather black to be exact and could see an attempt at cleaning had already been made. Sadly, the guy who does this for my buddy is in his mid 70's and is stingy with the contact cleaner... I am not! I gave all the controls a good cleaning and noted two wax capacitors that still need replacing, one on the tone control and one up in the center of the chassis. Actually, that section is much easier to access than the on on my 37-116! So, got the radio back together and we have major improvements. The tone control now works on at least two sections now, better than none, the Magnetic Tuning works just fine and the band switch is better, though still fussy. Actually, it cut out on me earlier on AM, but it was the band switch. I swear, I have had issues with Philco band switches from this era for some reason with only my 37-116 being good.
Still a little work to go though. Those last two wax capacitors will leave the radio after the start of the year and the upper shortwave band is not working. I get some response on the low end of it, but after 8.0 it disappears. Could be something major, could be that band switch. Time to invest in a can of Deoxit! On a plus note, the power transformer on this radio runs the coolest of all my daily driver sets. I always thought Philco used a bit of an over-sized power transformer on the 38-4 and 38-3 sets, which is fine by me. While it doesn't have the fidelity of the 37-116, this radio is a bass thumper.